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lunes, 21 de diciembre de 2009

Limited tour-only self-released CD-R from the duo of Chris Corsano on drums and melodica and Mick Flower (Vibracathedral Orchestra) on Japan banjo. This one beats both of their ‘official’ LPs in terms of dynamism and psychedelic excess, with the opening track the greatest recorded document of the group’s ferocious live form. Drawn from live recordings in Switzerland and Cambridge, the method of attack varies across the five tracks, running from slow single note chorales with Corsano stampeding underneath through glorious fire music-inspired ascensions that just keep on peaking. It’s hard to create any kind of dynamic when you’re working with an instrument that has a constant drone sound but here Flower and Corsano explode the limitations by playing with a single voice, to the point where any notion of interaction is exploded in favour of a profound simultaneity. Easily the best thing these two have recorded together, every time we spin this in the shop someone has to have it.

miércoles, 9 de diciembre de 2009

"Pathless" is a brand new, limited edition self release by Ekca Liena. It comes in some fantastic packaging, each one individually made with a unique photograph and ink splatters with an ace screen printed disc of psychedelic colours and swirls. Musically, it's hard to believe that this collection of tracks is stuff that never had a proper home; as it is some of Ekca's finest work I've heard so far. The disc begins with wind chimes and piano, building a slow tension as all the sounds dance around your brain in a dark manner. The next track, entitled "Cloud Movements", starts off equally sinister before a sustained string sound builds into a layered choral sound. By now, the tone of the piece has changed and an light airiness takes over which is fantastically uplifting. "Fading Youth" and "Fading Youth 2" are, for me, the highlights of the album. Reversed pianos and voice samples play over smokey synths and haze. As is with most of Ekca's work, the tracks are so detailed; although on paper drone pieces, there is just so much going on within the tracks. The combination of the pianos and the voice samples, which have been brilliantly processed, is just staggering. The final part of "Fading Youth 2" is beyond belief, giving you an overwhelming sense of nostalgia, pain and regret. It is without a doubt, Ekca's finest track to date. The disc is bought to a close with "Lonely Nights End", a stark and bleak track with desperate acoustic guitar plucking over dense droning.

This is a nice review from Forest Gospel. Following up his debut outing last year along with a collaborative release with Jasper Tx earlier this year, Anduin (AKA Jonathan Lee) sounds like he’s has finally achieved something really incredible with Abandoned in Sleep. That’s not to say that his previous output wasn’t good. Anduin seems to be defined at this point by impressive textures and colossal drones. Yet, it has only been with this newest release that I have really been taken aback by and become truly engaged with his work. In terms of 2009 releases, Abandoned in Sleep is most similar to Ben Frost’s By The Throat. On his sophomore release, Anduin has achieved a similar minimalist danger and psychological tension to that of Frost. What is possibly more importantly of note here is, despite the album’s similarities, Abandoned in Sleep's ability to stand so closely and competitively with Frost’s work without losing any of its individual edge or primal energy. The message here is this: if you enjoyed By The Throat in any measure, you’re going to love Abandoned in Sleep. There is a magnificent claustrophobia present on the album that feels muted and heavy, encroaching steadily on the space left in your mind. Heady stuff for headphones and speakers alike, though I would most encouragingly recommend an isolated listen with the nicest set of headphones that you can get your hands on; the textures Anduin has created reward sophisticated headgear. I think that the generous improvement Anduin has made in terms of this record and his last is the diversity and mobility of his compositions. His debut set a standard for textures, but remained relatively stagnant after achieving said textures. On Abandoned in Sleep you can tell that Anduin has taken efforts to make his sounds live and breathe. There is a heart pumping within this record, slowly and assuredly, masking the intents of the beast it supports and its intent on devouring its listener whole. To the extent that being devoured by music can be enjoyable, Abandoned in Sleep is exceptionally gratifying.

viernes, 20 de noviembre de 2009

oh xela, what's left to say? just in time for john twells' move to the united states, "the divine" drops at your door. whereas it's predecessor, "the illuminated," was a dark, twisted trek through the most uncomfortable reaches of the xela psyche, "the divine" looks toward the light, attemping to find solace but, again, finds nothing to hang on to. and it's one hell of a jam.starting out with endless loops of church bells battering your skull into a reverie, the next thing you know it's like you're suddenly a cockroach in the house of god. cryptic voices haunt the bells and get dragged through the dirt. everything and everyone is lost in the static. toward the end, a choir of voices emerges, escaping the black hole plague. but twells ain't done yet. flip things over and it leads to something else entirely. an electronic stew is the bedrock and twells' voice is the steeple. washed-out drones build momentum until the only place to escape is into the galaxies beyond. there's something sickly beautiful at work here with everything under a layer of frosted glass. twells wails, a siren song to certain doom no doubt, but it's a choice we make time and time again to embrace our delicious demise.

miércoles, 18 de noviembre de 2009

Strictly speaking, this split 7" from Grouper and Xela is a subscription-only release, and so shouldn't really be available to shops. This record marks the very first installment of Root Strata's 'Tsuki No Seika' series, a sequence of four 7"s that will go on to include contributions from Christina Carter, Richard Youngs, Islaja, Zelienople, Hisato Higuchi and Valet. The common theme running throughout is a restriction to acappella compositions, and the overall air of autonomy and self-sufficiency is even carried over into the artwork: each artist illustrates their own side of the sleeve. Grouper's musical contribution has something faintly festive about it, sounding like the warm-up hum of undead Christmas carollers. The piece acquires the seamless, fog-caked, drone-like quality that characterised Liz Harris' earliest output, momentarily abandoning her more songwriterly instincts for a return to the brilliantly intangible and esoteric qualities of 'Way Their Crept'. The Xela side is more discernible as a vocals-only piece, and avoiding droned-out abstraction he layers darkly reverberant falsetto recordings that tap into the almost Arvo Part-like streak recurrent in his work of late. The tone encroaches on something that's at least similar to ecclesiastical music, taking on the improbable aesthetic of a one-man church choir from the fourteenth century. Only the song's title upsets that logic: it's called 'I Drowned Her In A Dreamless Sleep'. This all makes for an exceptional start to the series, and with the likes of Carter and Youngs - both seasoned purveyors of unaccompanied vocal recordings - waiting in the wings, this bears all the hallmarks of an absolutely classic collectors edition.

Jonna Karanka has been slowly leaking out little Kuupuu jewels for six years now, somehow it's taken just that long to materialize her first 'proper' album. Maybe it has something to do with the time she's devoted to her beautiful artwork, or her time spent in a highly impressive string of other bands, included Hertta Lussu Assa (with Islaja and Lau Nau), Anaksimandos, Avarus, and many others. But, you know, I always figured Kuupuu music didn't have much to do with 'time' anyway. It's music from another reality, to put it bluntly. A beautiful place no doubt, but somehow totally other. You could call this music a lot of things, all without really saying much. Post-everything? Pre-birth folk? Bedtime acid-art? Naive avant-garde loop witchcraft? Maybe something like a thousand memories & vague images folded into each other and spooled out infinitely like a sloppy film loop. The sound of tiny bioluminescent insects systematically devouring an urban cityscape in hyper-speed, while just as quickly slithering neon flora entwine the metallic gray remains, only to then be gobbled themselves by a leaderless army of pulsating micro-robots. Got that? Now play backwards in slow motion. Surreal might just be an understatement. Packaged in a stunning ultra-heavy laminated full color gatefold cover with full color art labels, all created by Jonna.

miércoles, 11 de noviembre de 2009

Guitars warped so hard they dissolve into pure consciousness! Seriously, this record had to happen because these two are the NOW of transcendental guitar weirdness. In families like ours where deformed music of one kind or another pours out of the speakers all day long, Toronto's Aidan Baker is a household name. He is no doubt one of the most imaginative experimental musicians of the new generation, quickly creating a universe of limitless sound with his bursting discography. He offers this record an extensive piece which mixes drone, texture, and an ever-bowing foundation--imagine the sound of falling backwards...forever. The new blood on this split is guitarist Sarah Lipstate from Brooklyn, New York (aka Noveller). Sarah's prepared twin guitar works up a slow hypnotic force, gently pulling way out to the furthest deep end of pulses and patterns. Beautiful repetitions effortlessly skirt over a dark undercurrent. Edition of 600 copies.

Dreamland is a truly epic film about a nation standing at cross-roads. Leading up to the country’s greatest economic crisis, the government started the largest mega project in the history of Iceland, to build the biggest dam in Europe to provide Alcoa cheap electricity for an aluminum smelter in the rugged east fjords of Iceland. The mantra was economic growth. Today Iceland is left holding a huge dept and an uncertain future.Dreamland tells the story of a nation with abundance of choices gradually becoming caught up in a plan to turn its wilderness and beautiful nature into a massive system of hydro-electric and geothermal power plants with dams and reservoirs, built to power the increasing heavy industry that will soon make Iceland the largest aluminum smelter in the world.This was a limited edition release of 200 cd sold at the Whale Watching Tour. It´s sold Out

jueves, 5 de noviembre de 2009

A bristling static rests upon the tone-float arcs of guitar and analog synth on both sides of this exceptional split release from SoCal’s Infinite Body and Emaciator. The two share an ability to coax bright distortion capable of an enveloping warmth rarely witnessed in the context of noise culture. But, these two artists cannot be accused of being interchangeable with each other. Infinite Body (aka Kyle Parker) overlaps chords into harmonic sets of roughly stitched minimalism set below that pulsing stream of distortion; and if anything, the Infinite Body tracks resemble the more aggressive pieces from the Spire commissions for church organ. Emaciator’s taut lazer-beam of sound is far more linear in structure, pulsing with buzzing vibrations and steadily evolving from cold steely mass into a golden mist of radio-luminescence. After this track and the 2008 Reflection 2LP, Emaciator (aka Jon Borges) is quickly developing into quite the craftsman.

lunes, 2 de noviembre de 2009

The third in the series of 'Infinite Guitar' and 'Guitar & Bass Improvisations', a CD for each of these third volumes put together in one double CD package in 6 panel digi sleeve. By a longshot the best of this series so far, deep highly processed improvisations for the late night somnambulist. For 'Infinite Guitar 3', Justin K. Broadrickfor the first time in this series, improvised through a loud Marshall stack, processing the recordings after, which results in a wider set of nuances and textures once compared to the previous volumes of 'Infinite Guitar'. 'Guitar & Bass Improvisations 3' featuring Diarmuid Dalton on bass, is again, the most comprehensive of this series to date.

viernes, 30 de octubre de 2009

Iowa City’s Evan Miller is never one to stay in the same rut for too long. His earlier releases were composed of Fahey-esque spells, heavily emotional acoustic guitar work emanating tones of nostalgia and simplicity. On Transfigurations a new zone is crafted with lap-steel guitar and tape collage, creating equally nostalgic music from the other end of the spectrum: delicate, minimal drones. Tones interweave and textures evolve: it is Evan’s most personally progressive work, combining past themes and reinterpreting them on another medium: electric lap-steel guitar.

domingo, 25 de octubre de 2009

Infinity Padlock is an EP that finds Nudge exploring voices on the fringes of their album-based output. The group netted their largest audience with their 2005 release Cached, which came out on the well-respected Kranky imprint. Fans will recognize members Paul Dickow and Honey Owens under their solo monikers, Strategy and Valet, respectively. Dickow’s been a canny observer of independent musics for a long time, and the nuance and depth of the work he releases speaks to his keen ear and devoted eclecticism. Owens, for her part, has released some of the more celebrated psych work of the last few years.

Lately, the work of both Strategy and Nudge have been fascinating submersions of funk tactics in ambient atmospheres, yielding a fetching blend of homemade distortion, grotty polyrhythm, and spacious effects. Infinity Padlock, however, reflects a more meditative side of the group, one that’s deeply in touch with the post-acid agenda of Owens’ work. On “War Song” the group offers a watery, echo-laden reflection of the folk idiom, complete with layers of reverbed electric guitar, silvery vocals, and down-tempo percussion. “Angel Decoy” conjures shoegaze by generating a thick haze of blissful noise from which tiny shards of guitar, organ, and fiddle dart out like cut lightning bolts and sleet rain. The track is a shuddering analog storm system that would make Yellow Swans proud. “Sickth” enables the weight of an open nighttime sky and the fastidious activity of insects to converge in a gorgeous dream sequence. The EP closes with “Time Delay Twin,” a sort of bedroom folk clad in Sonic Youth pajamas.

Infinity Padlock is crawling with meticulous artistry that serves to shape complex, pliable moods. Far more than a throwaway collection of odd and ends, this EP deserves a respected place in the Nudge catalogue and your year-end best-of list.

viernes, 23 de octubre de 2009

The Friendship-Trip series is an ongoing project to release diverse music from across the world made by friends who share similar ideas about the future and seek similar ways to communicate those ideas.

Lucky Dragons are about the birthing of new and temporary creatures--equal-power situations in which audience members cooperate amongst themselves, building up fragile networks held together by such light things as skin contact, unfamiliar language, temporary logic, the spirit of celebration, and things that work but you don't know why. There have been hundreds of these simple yet shifting and unpredictable instances--with audiences ranging from the intense intimacy of one person to the public spectacle of thousands of people. At the heart of it all is playing together--building up social collectivities, re-engaging the wonder and impossibility of technological presence. It sounds--and looks--like simple and ancient patterns coming together and falling apart in a sincere attempt to let wires and screens and words become clear and crystal.

Ecstatic Sunshine is a continual investigation of the places where transcendence and playfulness intersect. Their music is an illustration of everyday, vague positivity; like making out under the bleachers, or seeing a minor car accident, having a dream that is good, or hearing sounds that are pleasing.

martes, 20 de octubre de 2009

In a semi-recent review posted on his Heritage Head web site, rock icon/author/critic Julian Cope envisioned the latest work by San Francisco duo Barn Owl as a kind of time traveller’s palantir, a sort of seer’s stone for gazing into America’s colonial past. He notes, “It’s as though the first layer of American settlers has been reactivated through the music and Barn Owl are transmitters.” As overzealous as his piece gets, Cope nears an important specificity in his description. The songs on From Our Mouths a Perpetual Light do evoke the foreboding ecstasy of discovery, the brooding anxiety of reaching into a new frontier. However, the rich psychic wilderness that they probe isn’t from the past, but from our very own time.

With this first non CD-R, formal LP, John Porras, Evan Caminiti and drummer Mike Bailey have created a purposeful, expansive drone music to soundtrack the forgotten dimensions of our postmodern consciousness. Using heavily effected guitars, ebbing harmonium and sparse percussion, the trio spins out eight compositions that slow time to a veritable halt, stopping our hyper-accelerated reality dead in its tracks. Almost fully instrumental and unbreaking in its mournful demeanor, the album goes a step further than much experimental music that aims to shake people from staid mindsets or inspire with challenging sonic abrasion. Instead, it locates buried outposts of meditative consciousness, delivering the listener into realms of time and space frequently ignored.

A significant part of what makes this record such a marked departure from other currents of contemporary music is its use of stark aural minimalism. The album was recorded analog on an old reel-to-reel and is devoid of ornamentation. Barn Owl uses the basic tools of rock and roll (and a slew of worthy effects pedals) to illuminate a world just beneath our plane of immediate perception, perhaps most poignantly illustrated by the short, enthralling vistas of “The Stones Speak Through the Fire.” In the echoed cries we hear a wilderness churning in isolation. This could be the soundtrack to a ritual being performed somewhere in expansive pristine America, but is more likely the distant sound of smelting ore, of free land being transformed into the cold dominion of man.

domingo, 18 de octubre de 2009

Tana Spargue (Lissom) is a Oakland, California, based sound and visual artist as well as production manager and Assistant director of Recombinant Media labs in San Francisco. Nest of Iterations is her debut album and directly points to her areas of concern, iteration a repetition of process in computing with a mutative state. Compare this idea with any the basic tenets of the minimalist school of music where slight changes in repetitions over time lead to greater development and revealed through time the whole as movement and change within a given form. However Sparges work is more directly interested in computing areas than the minimalist school of Reich, Riley or La Monte Young. Lissom as a reference point directly points to self organizing computational models that are influenced by the agile manifesto for software development. Lissom literally means agile and graceful. Nest of Iterations is a seven track album that combines intricate micro fluctuations using digital forms and organic forms to create the sound. In the use of organic forms here we can note that the digital programs/programming utalised in the production follows an organic growth, in that it builds on foundational knowledge, overlaid by incremental advances. The sense of organic here also incorporates the nature sense, through field recordings, vocal intonations, sourced sounds. However the concepts of organic growth in language and the devices manifest by the development of mathematical, musical advances in the theoretical nature of sound are the true subject matter of Lissom’s work. This point adequately made the area of sound that Lissom generally is located is usually referred to as ambient, in that it is not specifically beat driven or concerned with ideas of rhythm or melody in the sense of popular music, even though the internal nature of her progress in music could have a sense of rhythm stretching through time and describing the time or space of music as it occurs at the abstract frontiers of sound. It is more precisely seven tracks of discrete micro environments of sound infused with far reaching conceptual frameworks of musical and computational theory and practice.

Nest of Iterations is an excellent addition to Yann Novak’s collection of works on his Dragon’s Eye Recordings label. Released as a 250 limited edition 5″ CD-R, this work will surely become a sought after collector’s item to those marveling in the works of Carsten Nicolai (Alva Noto), Taylor Dupree, Richard Chartier, and Evan Bartholomew.

viernes, 16 de octubre de 2009

Mountains, the duo of Brendon Anderegg and Koen Holtkamp, have been making some of the most beautifully epic music of the past four years. The two blend acoustic instrumentation with field recordings, subtle electronics and live sampling to create something otherworldly. You've probably heard a lot of people running acoustic instruments through their computers and are probably pretty bored with that whole concept at this point. The last thing Catsup Plate would foist on the world is another twee laptop-folk project. Mountains is an altogether different entity. The Wire magazine described their music as "infinite sheets of grainy sound build and renew themselves to immensely pleasing effect," and that pretty much sums it up for us here at C Plate.

Mountains Mountains Mountains, though it feels of a piece, is actually a compilation of sorts. The whole of side B ("Millions of Time" and "Hive") constitutes the entirety of a 3" CDR the band put together for a month long tour towards the end of 2005. And interestingly, "The Whale Years," the album's first track, was improvised in a hotel room in southern Georgia on that same tour (if only all improvisations sounded so beautiful and composed!). "Nest" was recorded in NYC in late 2007.

Those who are familiar with Mountains will notice a more muscular sound on Mountains Mountains Mountains. Much of "The Whale Years" is built around a phased guitar line that, through manipulation of an unknown sort, takes on an overwhelming celestial grandeur. "Nest" find Mountains returning to a fingerpicked acoustic guitar line, but with a ringing urgency that eventually falls away as the side runs out. "Millions of Time" is based on a motorik-style repeating sample, upon which the band hangs huge washes of guitar that recall something like the dissonant melodies of early 90s Shoegaze or the recent work of Axolotl. And the album ends with "Hive" which may be the most forceful piece they have recorded. The first two and a half minutes begin with a ringing cloud of layered guitar picking that dies away momentarily, at which point a howl of dissonance and guitar wail envelops the song, eventually pushing the piece to a monumental drone that is totally unexpected and amazing.

miércoles, 14 de octubre de 2009

My SpaceTo call Caboladies and the Caboladies related output in the last couple of years 'prolific' is kind of like calling Michael Jordan just an ok basketball player; it’s pretty much the understatement of the decade. The craziest part is that it seems like everything this Kentucky trio (now a duo?) touches turns gold and promptly (and rightfully) disappears amid the frenzied drone-heads lurking teh internets for any sign of an under-the-radar Caboladies release. Well, I lamented not being hip to the Caboladies’ Atomic Weekender LP on Digitalis, but I guess I can’t complain because CrowdedOutMemory, the new cdr from Emeralds run label Gneiss Things, is pretty much the album lengthed Caboladies treasure that I have been yearning for all year. Like Axolotl’s Of Bonds in General, Crowded Out Memory just barely makes the thirty minute mark with three long form tracks. I bring up Of Bonds in General because despite the astral hyperboles that I heaped upon that record in my review of its unparalleled goodness, Crowded Out Memory is hitting that same level of noise-ambient bliss. While Caboladies do fit into a similar category as Axolotl, there are definitely distinct differences in their sound. What Caboladies have been pushing is a bit less abrasive and a bit more, um, spacey? Crowded Out Memory is flush with a polysynth barrage of digital rainfall, mechanized laser beams and glittering keyboard sizzles that all combine to create the most unlikely beauty. Crowded Out Memory is basically two relatively shorter tracks sandwiching an eighteen minute plus behemoth of wandering, molecular mischief that strives to rearrange the patterns of space. Caboladies do a pretty fair job too. I wouldn’t be surprised if based on the efforts of this album alone that scientists announce the addition, retraction and rearrangement of several planets in our solar system by early next year. Of course, by that time you can probably expect that the Caboladies will have released a dozen more, equally gorgeous tapes, cds and vinyl to put things back into their rightful place again. As far as I am concerned, Caboladies can pretty much do whatever they want. This album is simply nuts delicious, textured and pastoral, futuristic and timeless. I guess there is one less available spot in my top ten for 2009. (From Forest Gospel)

martes, 13 de octubre de 2009

Lucky Dragons have existed in one form or another for a fare while now and though their records are not easy to track down, these LA based loop enthusiasts have a lot to offer so you should seek them out. Or, you could invest in 'Open Power', probably their most consistent and widely available release so far. Listening to a Lucky Dragons record is kinda like sifting through a sketch book. Lots of ideas! Almost too many to appreciate in one sitting. Here are some of the basic things you need to know about Lucky Dragons; they commonly process their ideas on computers yet they sound like a free form, organic improvised duo. They love percussive loops and use them whenever possible. They have an innate ability to weave impossibly satisfying melodies. They are playful and amusing in everything they do. They share certain traits with Baltimore's Animal Collective but they are tons better YO! Side A contains two amazingly consistent tunes. 'Traveling song' and 'Open Melody' take in elements of Steve Reich and twist them into fun shapes and patterns. Both tracks are really tranquil and sound good at both 45 and 33RPM, can't say that about many records. The B-side has three slightly more out there experiments. 'Power melody' is awesome with it's unabashed use of pan pipes and flutes to create a north african style party groove. I'll stop now because I'll be at it all day but rest assured, this is an awesome record. If you got their last 7" collection and liked it a lot, then you'll more than likely be fully amazed by this. If you like Black Dice, glockenspiel Pit Er Pat, Animal Collective, Mahjongg and those new tropical drone concept records from James Ferrero then you should check this out for sure.

jueves, 8 de octubre de 2009

Since his earliest days, Ben Frost has been fascinated by the cinematic qualities of the guitar. His output to this point has hinted at this, but with Steelwound he makes a bold statement of intent.

Finding his way to a deserted stretch of Johanna Beach along the Great Ocean Road (Victoria, Australia) in early 2003 Frost set up a remote studio at a derelict cabin overlooking the icy waters of Bass Strait. With a constant wind flowing off the sea his only companion, Frost started work on a series of improvisations that would eventually become Steelwound. A few months go by and Frost has made his way back to civilization. He begins editing the masses of treated guitar from the Johanna Beach improvisations and before long a theme takes hold - one that very much reflects the isolation of the environment where the tracks were created.

Each of the pieces on Steelwound is a epic journey, coloured with a deep sense of filmic narrative and suggested dialogues. The textural quality of the works, laced with field recordings and lost vocal fragments, sketches out the emotional soundscapes Frost had unwittingly gathered during his time at Johanna Beach. Each piece is a splintered fragment in time - a forgotten memory beautifully rediscovered in a moment of introspection.

sábado, 3 de octubre de 2009

Yellow Tears is the sound of a drop of urine being pushed through an infected urethra. An uncomfortable attraction to the golden realms of natural expulsion, this is the audio collage equivalent of a child's worst day at a carnival as an actionist nightmare of disturbing imagery and sounds. Don't Cry shows these young masters at work, carving out sculptures of depravity using god-knows-what for source sounds. The listener is introduced to a mostly quiet, subtle psychology of fear, childhood trauma and locked cellars. Power comes from the absence of the familiar. Separating themselves from the narcissistic herd, the band requires decades of therapy to begin to solve their problems. Bad dreams are supposed to be frightening.

Following shocking albums from Kevin Drumm, Cold Cave, Wolf Eyes and Grey Wolves, Yellow Tears join one of the strongest label schedules around with their latest album 'Don't Cry' on Dominic Fernow's Hospital imprint. The group are an intense bunch of characters, devoted to creating a totally unhinged blend of repressed violence and engrossing drone layers that will uplift and terrify you with equal force. 'Don't Cry' is just an uncomfortably reassuring listen from start to finish, coating two sides of the black stuff in dismantled sketches of brutality and internal noise expunged from sources unknown. The album takes the form of an audio collage, cutting out and pasting sections of your worst nightmares with subtle use of hovering synthlines and close attention to atmospheric detail, presumably using field recordings to create a morphing sense of space alternating between claustrophobia and widescreen loneliness. We're not smart enough to coin a new genre for this sound, but it really is a visceral exercise in aural narcosis that is just ruling our world.

After lambasting those Wooden Shjips and their rotting bows and decaying hulls since I was first subjected to their largely boring ouvre, I scoffed at the ridiculous travesty of one of them having some sort of "solo" career. What's that gonna entail then? A solitary 2 note bassline looping for nigh on 10 minutes? Erm I was a bit wrong and now with the new Moon Duo EP 'Killing Time' on Sacred Bones shaking the office, i've gotta eat humble pie a little. It's repetitive alright, opening with the stunning self titled lead track, the relentless primitive 60's Motown-esque beat grounding a blurred echoed vocal whilst guiding this hollow wail of harrowing, fuzzy distortion that simply renders the tune sound quite stunning, eerie, claustrophobic & dystopian, like a Phil Spector production fed through the heart of a holocaust. 'Speed' possesses a juddery, nihilistic seedy bent with heavy nods to the hypno-sleaze overload of Suicide, the beat remaining a metronomic 60s flecked pulse whilst walls of sneering overloaded organ pulse & grind away like the soundtrack to some psychedelic orgy. More mellow edged lo-fi motorik psych beginning the flip slide that sounds quite Neu-ish, concluding with 'Ripples' a hazy mid 70's Komische style slice of desert baked chill-out that'd sound even better after a Peyote & Mescaline shake & a large doobie - but after the blistering shellshock of the opening track you're just nodding along obliviously with a spannered, lopsided smile on yr face.

jueves, 1 de octubre de 2009

Dag Rosenqvist aka Jasper TX (one half of the post rock duo De LaMancha) has been producing his own brand of unique ambience for sometime now, having had releases with Lampse, Miasmah, most recently FangBomb and self releasing various 3inch CDrs inbetween. It is with much honor that I welcome Dag into the “Dead Pilot ranks” (as it were).

With this 3 inch disc, Dag has really honed in on the drone sound he has only vaguely touched upon before. Building from subtle organ tonesto dense low end drones and peaking with fizzing glory and triumph,this perfectly crafted 20 minute piece shows Dags ear for minimalismand subtle shifts in melody and texture. It’s slow burning development makes the peak much more euphoric and intense. Like Stars of the Lid remixed by Machinefabriek.

miércoles, 30 de septiembre de 2009

Lee features two covers, both described as old favorites by Meluch. The first is an excellent rendition of "Sundown, Sundown," originally written and performed by Lee Hazelwood with Nancy Sinatra. Meluch erases all the punchy orchestration of the original and replaces it with a hazy and sullen performance that retains the core melody and romantic tone. Meluch's spectral voice is in total contrast to Hazelwood's grittier delivery, but the subdued tone generated by Meluch's playing compliments his softer performance perfectly. The B-side is a cover of The Ink Spot's "Someone's Rocking My Dreamboat," a doo-wop song from the early '40s. Meluch maintains the simplicity of the original and puts all the focus on his vocal performance and a plodding bass line. The song's bookended by some static effects that sound like Meluch's signature more than anything else. It's a nice song, but the original doesn't appeal to me as much as Hazelwood does, so I can't get myself as excited about it.

Flocks is an 11-plus minute EP that features a dark, nearly resigned tone and more of the haunting melodies I have come to expect from Benoît Pioulard. The A-side, "Maginot," begins with the dark tolling of a bell and puts some industrial atmospheric effects to good use. These are cut off as Meluch lends his drifting voice to a choppy acoustic guitar accompanied by percussive effects, bells, and a fluid lead guitar. As the song progresses it becomes more layered and acquires an exotic, yearning character before degenerating into a sweet mess of sound effects and sustained notes. The B-side is a noise epic reminscient of the material played during his live show. "Alaskan Lashes" obliterates Meluch's angelic voice and eschews his melodic inclinations in favor of churning wheels, pressurized intensity, and grinding mayhem. It is a deep, bellowing blast of sound that broods and boils before it suddenly disappears. I hope this is a sign that Meluch has similar music on the way because both of these songs are superb.

martes, 22 de septiembre de 2009

Noveller is the working name for avant-drone guitarist / filmmaker Sarah Lipstate. Having graduated from the legion sized guitar symphonies of both Glenn Branca and Rhys Chatham, Lipstate produced a couple of cd-rs, a cassette, and some tracks for some compilations. She's also been moonlighting as the guitarist for Parts & Labor, but it's this album that caught our attention. Recorded for the increasingly confounding label No Fun (less aggro noise these days and more occluded psychedelic dronemusik), Paint On The Shadows begins with a liltingly pretty, side-long construction of intertwining guitar loops and elliptical fingerpicked patterns that conjures all of the best that Grouper and Colleen had managed through their loopstation laboratories. All of these sounds blossom out of a harmonic bed of bowed guitar drones; and steady low end thrums sublimate into richly plucked chiming notes that could even double for Jozef Van Wissem. The flipside offers up two pieces which seem to reflect her live presentations, with ebows, motors, and hand-held tape decks driving the strings and pick-ups from her double necked guitar. With precise placements of the ebows and some choice tremolo effects, Lipstate generates phasing tones often heard in the cosmic explorations of Eno & Fripp's No Pussyfooting or certainly not that far from Emeralds. Another one of those hyper-limited lp pressings from No Fun. Just 300 were made, and don't expect these to last very long!

lunes, 21 de septiembre de 2009

From one extreme to the other in the crazy world of Norman Records with the new album by Ian Hawgood called 'Snow Roads'. This is an edition of 250 copies on Dragon Eye Recordings. Theres so much limited stuff about in handmade sleeves that its easy to get lost amongst it all. Its hard to blame the labels though as any release once its out a week or so will be available to download for free all over the internet. What people must remember when getting stuff for free is the link between them doing this and another nail in the coffin for the labels that are still attempting to release stuff and the shops attempting to sell it. I'm probably preaching to the converted here but if it needs saying once it needs saying a million times. Anyway onto the music which is a selection of delightful drones using organ, found sounds, field recordings and the odd guitar pluck. It includes contributions of source material from other artists including The Remote Viewer on harmonium, El Fog on vibraphone, Celer on tingsha bells, Le Mépris and Katherine Morrice on piano, and field recordings by Ben Jones and Wataru Osako. Its a lovely, shifting landscape of soothing sounds - perfect to nod off to sleep to on a chilly autumn evening.

jueves, 17 de septiembre de 2009

Emeralds is John Elliott (synth), Steve Hauschildt(synth) and Mark McGuire (guitar). They are currently based in Cleveland, Ohio. Their music is of an improvisational nature and is synthesizer and guitar-centric, however vocals, electronics and field recordings are often utilized to create dynamic textures amidst melodious backdrops and minimal structures. Though their sound cannot be pinned down to one specific genre, it recalls the organic/electronic explorations of Tangerine Dream, Ashra, Coil, Terry Riley and Popol Vuh to name but a few.

Brand new full length from Cleveland's Emeralds recorded Aug-Sept 2008. Proper follow up to their debut LP 'Solar Bridge', 'Emeralds' takes the thick drone sound of that LP and transforms it into an even more abstract and strange place. Visual music that lifts the listener up and transports them through tubes of sound occasionally to be swept into the opposite direction by an unexpected entrance into another world entirely. An intense journey that drops you off in a place just beyond death.

martes, 15 de septiembre de 2009

Ekca Liena, the work of the prodigious Dan Mackenzie, created quite a stir with his monumental debut ‘Slow Music For Rapid Eye Movement’. Issued via the excellent Dead Pilot Records, this record was a stunning collision of monolithic drones, volcanic guitar and cascading ambient soundscaping, that led those in the know to draw comparisons with Stars of the Lid, Tim Hecker, Fennesz and even Mogwai. One critic even labeled it as ‘..a piece of music that may alter your perception of the word epic’.

Mackenzie has not rested on his laurels; as well as founding drone outfit Plurals he has been busy recording new material for both Dead Pilot and Under the Spire Records, while remastering ‘Slow Music…’ for a wider release. Phantom Channel has also commissioned a piece from Mackenzie, entitled 'Orb Night', and is delighted to welcome his Ekca Liena project into our blossoming roster.

You can dowload the entire album on the label site (here) and buy it for a little price. It´s a 3" Cd release with 40 copies only, so hurry up!

lunes, 14 de septiembre de 2009

Kyle Parker has jacked in his excellently named 'Gator Surprise' noise project to make way for Infinite Body which explores a far more subdued avenue. 'CMBCMEINAPTD' goes deep into heady drone territory with some thick fuzzy textures. I'm reminded a little of Growing's 'Colour Wheel' album. Phil is reminded of early Belong stuff. After hearing their 'October Language' LP earier I can second that notion....He uses some quite different and colourfull sounds over the duration of the album. It's consistently hypnotic throughout with some nice use of repetition and subtle shifts in mood.

Things Weren't Always This Way is yet another stop on the ceaselessly evolving path of Ben Woods' creativity. Ben takes neo-classical minimalism to an entirely new level by blending, reversing, and layering pianos and other instruments to capture a surreal snapshot of his own psyche.

The album is as serene as it is sublime and the title track captures its essence with heavily layered harmonies and swirling ambiance, leaving the listener to be slightly caught off guard by the uneasy tension of Leaving Them Only, which only serves to strengthen its impact.

As he mentions in the liner notes, the album was created with something of a balance in mind. Each track can be reversed by the listener (using Audacity or something similar) to create a completely new listening experience. I personally encourage everyone to give this a shot because the reversed tracks stand quite strongly on their own and allow the listener to experience the album more thoroughly.

viernes, 11 de septiembre de 2009

When Iowa City freak-out free-rockers Raccoo-oo-oon called it quits last year it left a bummer scar in the Midwest underground scene. But time is a great healer, and so are new bands. So out of the ashes of the Rac pack comes Wet Hair, a synth-punk-trance duo composed of keyboardist/vocalizer Shawn Reed and keyboardist/drummer Ryan Garbes, and Dream is the band's debut vinyl full-length after a series of increasingly shredding limited-edition cassettes on their own Night People label. Piling together an unlikely trash heap of Suicide-style drum machine beat-bops, zone-droned krautrock keys, and fucked up outsider crooning, the LP's four tracks careen across a spectrum of moods and mangled melodies. Wet Hair's cult electric annihilation has never gleamed with such razor-edged weirdness; this is their dream made real.

jueves, 10 de septiembre de 2009

Ekca Liena is the recording alias of Daniel WJ Mackenzie, who recorded this album "in a lifeboat bedroom in Brighton, April 2009". I have no idea what a "lifeboat bedroom" is, but i'd like to think it involved a novelty, nautical bed with 'RNLI' emblazoned across it, much in the same spirit as one of those Formula One-themed bedrooms where small boys get their snooze on in a bed that looks like a car. Getting back to matters at hand, Drones Between Homes is a record of two halves: 'The More I Cut From One' and 'The More I Add To Another', the sort of titles you might find on a Hafler Trio record. Musically, this has more in common with the kind of sleepy tones you'd find on one of Kranky's more sedated releases, pouring bitcrushed electronic signals into the same melting pot as processed guitars and subdued atmospheric recording fragments. The second piece is especially good, featuring an escalating sense of drama thanks to an all-consuming minor chord that gradually accumulates power across the final third, before dissipating away via a linear downwards slope. A rather mysterious, ever so slightly traumatic example of the drone genre, this album is a peculiar thing but certainly worth spending some time with.Sold Out

viernes, 4 de septiembre de 2009

Italian ambient maestro Fabio Orsi reaches out for yet another collaboration on this, his latest project, teaming up with Antipodean 12k types Seaworthy. There are three individual pieces on the disc: the first is Orsi alone and the last is solely Seaworthy, while the middle track is a collaboration between the two parties. Orsi's 'Evening By Evening' is a luscious quarter-hour of drifting synth strings and effulgent major-key timbres - a typically masterful and immersive exercise from the composer - although Seaworthy are keen to tackle their piece from a different angle, embarking upon a more minimal trajectory with 'Branch And Stone', using the guitar as a drone-sculpting machine, quietly emitting digitally processed tones over a lovely, very patient piece of music. The collaboration is most consistent with Orsi's sound, taking on a nebulous, densely packed sound that seems to hover enigmatically over the course of its seventeen minutes, brought to life through symphonic minor chords and breakdowns that reveal heavily treated, downbeat guitar fragments. You get a rare sense of cogency from this creative partnership, and the album's three long-form compositions make for rewarding, cohesive listening.

miércoles, 2 de septiembre de 2009

The Reed/Garbes duo mainly sticks to their guns, mining the same post-Suicide art-trance vein they perfected on Dream, but with Glass Fountain there’s an added emphasis on the disembodied, oscillator pop mode that Wet Hair often toy with. Fountain’s five tracks include some of the band’s simplest but catchiest songs (“Crucifix In The Waves,” “When The Right Time Comes,” etc), mesmerizing organ melodies over plink-plonky vintage drum machines with weirdo soulful singing and outer space electronics, like an outsider-punk Silver Apples or something. Hard to say exactly what universe Wet Hair are operating in and that’s probably part of why we love it so much. A killer record that gets better each spin.

martes, 1 de septiembre de 2009

Zurial Jex and Bola Hesus have done a split LP what's limited to the 500 copies.. I loved the Buriaa Hes album (also on Aurora Borealis) and thought the Zoll Jesux effort on Troubleman was mighty fine so this one seemed an exciting propostition from the off. The side with Burial Hex (to use their non-stupid name) let me down a little bit on first listen, I wasn't sure that it compared well with the material I'd previously heard but now that it's on again and I'm giving it my full attention it's actually a highly satisfying thing. The first tune is a funereal electronic dirge that brings early Coil to mind (but pushed far more over the top than that comparison suggests by the crazy screaming man who clearly doesn't want to clean the oven) while the second is all over the place during the course of its fifteen minutes, taking in ambient noise, little piano sonatas, electroacoustic whirrs and whistles, exotic percussion and heavy riffing along the way. Zola Jesus (to use her non-stupid name) contibutes one big fuck-off track that isn't dissimilar to that long Burial Hex track in its variety - elements are constantly dropping in and out, ideas toyed with then discarded and textures never quite left long enough for you to get too comfortable.. Obviously her witchy voice is the most remarkable thing and there's a moment about halfway though where scratchy static vies for attention with a near operatic croon that got my hairs standing right on end. Just one special moment in a superb overall listen and having digested it a little bit more I can wholeheartedly recommend this experimental little industrial tyke. (Norman Records)

Pausal make micro-orchestral music for contemplative meditation - Absolutely lush pastoral drones and melodies weave and tangle, slowly ebbing and flowing, timelapse flowers growing in an english meadow with the sun setting just over the ridge, the sound of crickets in the night air.

Originally released in 2007 as a three track web EP, the EP has now been beautifully mastered and enhanced by Twerk, and sounds clear and luxuriant, basking in it's full grandeur, with the addition of new track 'Semi Submerged' recording during the same sessions, and some minor reconstructive surgery to the closing moments of 'Place (Revisited)' which the band always felt should be there.

domingo, 23 de agosto de 2009

This meeting of minds must surely rank as the most enticing prospect in Konkurrent's ongoing In The Fishtank series: Mark Linkous of Sparklehorse teams up with Christian Fennesz once again, this time for a whole album together. Previously Fennesz had contributed to Sparlehorse's Dreamt For Light Years In The Belly Of A Mountain, and the two had performed together, but this long-player represents a full and balanced collaboration. As with all the In The Fishtank releases, this was recorded in a mere two days, and yet there's nothing cobbled together or insubstantial about the project. 'Music Box Of Snakes' is a wonderful starting point, layering harmonised cello, piano, treated music box loops and a drove of electronic signals all making up an exquisitely melancholy soundscape. You might, understandably, have felt cheated were you to be presented with a Mark Linkous record that he's not providing some kind of 'song' content for. Fortunately he does just that on two of this record's finest moments: the laudanum-drone lullaby 'Goodnight Sweetheart' and the weightless, whispered chord-clouds of 'If My Heart'. Further fiery improv material arrives in the form of 'NC Bongo Buddy' (whose dense, noisy manoeuvrings at times tap into the free-roaming spirit of the Fenn O'Berg material), while two of the most surprising moments on the record arise from solo spots by each artist. As if participating in some sort of exchange programme, 'Mark's Guitar Piece' dabbles in machined, digital augmentations while 'Christian's Guitar Piece' is an unaccompanied, untreated six-string outing that's unprecedentedly stark and unguarded in the context of Fennesz's catalogue.

viernes, 21 de agosto de 2009

Meth Teeth reside in Portland OR. and in some ways embody the rainy day big country vibe of the city with its youth culture dreamers, old druggies, and rustic history. There is something that is really hard to pin down about Meth Teeth, the songs rely on simple ramshackle rhythms, upbeat shinny guitar interplay, and big fat chord churners, and a lot of tambourine banging away on the snare drum. Ultra catchy summertime rockers keep you sad and lonely, and upbeat and hopeful all at once

miércoles, 12 de agosto de 2009

Ore, Marielle Jakobsons' first darwinsbitch full-length, presents a remarkably assured exercise in electro-acoustic dronescaping. Using sine oscillators, violin, piano, bells, and other acoustic sounds, Jakobsons, who also plays in the duo Myrmyr (with Agnes Szelag) and Date Palms (with Gregg Kowalsky), stitches seven settings into an uninterrupted, forty-six-minute mass of malignant miasma. The opening piece “Iron Lake” emerges from glutinous fog, the track's stillness reinforced by a phalanx of humming electrical drones and the saw of a violin. It's the latter's presence that gives darwinsbitch's music a character that separates it from that of other sound sculptors. Deploying it judiciously, Jakobsons uses its moaning cry to humanize her desolate and gloom-ridden landscapes. In similar manner, a harmonium occupies the forefront of “Silver Sphere,” gently illuminating its mournful ambiance with crystalline tones before the album plunges into a darker, subterranean zone of nightmarish rumbling (“Flames in Blackened Sky”). Descending deeper, sine tones rub dissonantly against one another in “Raven's Dissipation” while the high-pitched whistle of the violin haunts the background. The exhausted sounds of industrial machinery, bells, and a broken piano dominate the thirteen-minute closer “Shadow Leaves” with the violin theme heard in “Iron Lake” re-appearing to bring the album full circle. Jakobsons shapes the blurry tendrils of the eleven-minute requiem “Iron Lake” and the album's other six pieces with an impressive degree of patience, control, skill, and delicacy. Though understated by design, Ore nevertheless impresses as a tour de force.

martes, 11 de agosto de 2009

Genre: Psychedelic, Drone, Experimental, Tropical PopLabel:Olde English Spelling BeeBuy"Major new LP from Ducktails and easily one of Matt Mondanile’s most beautiful, out of time creations. A perfect visioning of Hypnagogic Pop’s retro-futurist appeal, with instrumentals that are as naïve and as wide-eyed teenage perfect as anything on the Department Store Santas LP and an approach to the jam that is primitive in its execution but maximalist in its ambition and its time-phasing potential. Although the arrangements are fairly simple, they have all of the utopian neverland appeal of the lesser known ends of the Beach Boys catalogue. Landscapes includes some re-mastered tracks that originally appeared on the Parasails cassette. Genius liner notes by Skaters road-mangler Charles Berlitz which are worth quoting in full: “Dear Matt, It's confetti for memories! your buddy Charles and the Sunday afternoon gripfest staring, check this out: "Little Man Tate" and "Little Big Man", super funny, as well as a dusty tough to read flick called, you know i got carrots for brains, "Pipeline"! So, you know every trilogy needs the curveball, and well, "Pipeline" has got to be uncle charlie. I found these videos in the basement of chateau terrace antwerp, but it's super gritty kitty down there and i just grabbed three quickies. So I just put on your jams, and i am gunna watch Pipeline's surf visions and scope your memories and sunbake. but man, Pipeline's front flap video tape protection is busted, so i am gunna trade it with "You Got Mail's" front flap, at this point i have to duck into my roomates zone and grip his RCA to Mini jack, but he has a sign posted that reads "STAY OUT OF MY ROOM". super funny, but later I am gunna take the sign, cross out "ROOM" and insert "DREAMS", put the sign on my wall, let somebody specials red orange lipstick make out with it, so that the guy knows he's a cutie and chazzi's touched by freak. But so check it, i had to grip this RCA to Mini jack so that i can grip your memories and watch Pipeline. Hey man, for real though, member when we were on the beach in barcelona, before our car got towed, and we were cruising to beverly hills cop soundtrack, The Master and Carmen San Diego were in the back, we got to the beach jumped in the water drank beer ate coconuts and got massages while staring at boob people. at that moment, like when we snuck into the berlin film festival and danced Ocean's 11, wow, my roomate just came home, he's wearing a long party wig and telling chazzi that he shagged all night long in a squat called "Duel 3", no joke; but yeah, I cannot, for the parrot in me, forget those times, to each his own future, So wait, back to Pipeline,, no wait, i got to tell you about this party last full moon, my roomate throws one every month when the moon's light eclipses that of the rational minds hesitations, and well i had to dj, i wanted to, but i brought the parrot along, you met him right? he is always there when chazzy does the radio show or when monopoly needs vocals on a bamboo track, but neither of us invite this guy to the parties where those other dreams come true. its not cool, so i brought him along, you know his name right? Belafonte, so belafonte and i start dj-ing, you know that song from Police Academy called "I got to be somebody" by Jack Mack and a Hearttack? stars and ecstasy, for real, and jel doctor was getting me buckets of beer, cuz it was so hot and the air is full of short stuff, so i flip the records and repeatedly fend off requests for beat it and dirty diana, and all of a sudden Belafonte has drank all my beer and is smoking cigarettes, there are no tickets for free coldies, and i get pretty pissed, i kinda let Belafonte have it, you know, telling him that I cant take him anywhere, gnorm the gnome style, and he's like "alright, you go get some more beers", wow, your mirror jam just cruised in - memories... so, yeah, Belafonte is like "go, get some more beers and let me talk some of these girls into dancing with us and you will be calling me Most Valuable Vertabrae, birdtalk magazine style, so i get a bunch of coldies cuz tod god just came through with some bready poo, i come back to the dance floor, and well, i guess Belafonte burnt his head on his own cigarette, and this girl named Manon, but he understood as Emanuelle, like schnikies!! well his head is burnt and this black paint starts rubbing off his head, and i notice that there is paint on my neck, my face, and on her face, and her neck, and so on and so forth CSI style, and everybody kind of understands, the girls have taken this black paint and are marking it on their bodies like war paint initiation style, and they are petting Belafonte like he's the unattainable, i had no idea that this parrot was a model for Birdtalk Magazine back in its hey day, group therapy is affective... later i asked Manon for some affection, and she said "no, your feet are too dirty", on account of me wearing flippers to a dance party, and was like cool, its not even july 4th yet, but then, as i walked away she was like "Three O Clock, meet me at the Zoo!" no joke, Belafonte and me were like ah kuku ah kaka bamboo-for-two style... Stories are forever and i got to get back to PIPELINE, which is hitting the screen right now, and its definitely not about surfing and reminds charles of when Ebay and you stayed at the new york dante's microchip apartment and it was so hot and you guys passed out next to each other in your undies exclusively like siamese pipeline limbo style, if i had hoagie it would have been chazzi to chucky in like 4 doners and sixty seckies... Thanks for the memories Matt, i miss you man, i think Belafonte and I will get deported soon and i will meet you in Cali. Love, Charles Berlitz.”